The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[rubinstein]

something aquatic could work

not a chance. except the part about aquatic weapons being used on land...

a new raid or genuinely challenging pve content would though, but i highly doubt we are getting any, despite anet teasing us with the Eye.

and apparently we may be getting wing 8
we may be so back, raiders...

 

[Caim]

What's a Mursaat?

This is a Mursaat. Specifically Mabon, who is a major character in the recent expansion:

They're a race that date back to when the Elder Dragons woke up last time to devour all the magic in the world, and banded together with the other major races of the time (the dwarves, the jotun, four-armed snake people and four-armed blue dudes who look like tall ayylmaos) to fight the dragons. But since the snakes were the only ones close enough to help the Mursaat out they got roflstomped by one of the dragons, which made them majorly butthurt. They did learn how to make themselves invisible and teleport themselves out of the world, so they jumped ship and left everyone to get mulched by the dragons, later to return to finish off the blue dudes. The Mursaat tried to make a grasp at world domination, but when a lesser dragon foretold that some monsters would murder them all they changed gears. They created a cult so that they would have enough devout follower to sacrifice to keep the monsters sealed away, and things were going swell.

Except then Guild Wars 1 happened, the protagonist stumbled upon the prophecy that the Mursaat would get their asses kicked (the Prophecy that the game is named after, aka Guild Wars: Prophecy), and since the protagonist is the protagonist the Mursaat got all but wiped out. A woman from this time was massively butthurt over what the Mursaat had done and prolonged her life using magic to destory the final Mursaat. She does just that with the protagonist's help at the end of Living World Season 3, only for then to get shanghaied into serving the Astral Ward (the good guys in Secrets of the Obscure, which she had an alliance of convenience with in the past), only to find out that Mabon was a Mursaat. She initially flipped out and tried to kill him, but since the protagonist isn't around all she can do is throw knives at him for a bit until she's calmed the fuck down by the leader of the Astral Ward (one of the few remaining blue ayylmaos).

Now we're likely heading to the Janthir region, the home of the Mursaat, to do... well, we'll see soon.

 

[Caim]

something aquatic could work

not a chance. except the part about aquatic weapons being used on land...

a new raid or genuinely challenging pve content would though, but i highly doubt we are getting any, despite anet teasing us with the Eye.

and apparently we may be getting wing 8
we may be so back, raiders...

Bro. Nice.

An actual reveal next Tuesday.

 

[Caim]

I'm going to triple post for the dev retrospective:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/secrets-of-the-obscure-looking-back-and-forward/

Hey, Guild Wars community,

Josh Davis here, Game Director for Guild Wars 2®. Last week’s content update was a significant milestone for us—both technically and symbolically. It marked the final major release for Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure™(SotO), our first foray into the annual expansion model first announced in early 2023.

As we conclude one chapter with the final content update of SotO, we are eagerly preparing to unveil the details of our next expansion. Before we all get swept up by next week’s news of what’s coming for Guild Wars 2, I want to take a moment to reflect on the development of SotO and some of the high-level learnings that we’ve taken forward with us into our fifth expansion. You won’t learn about the specific features, setting, or story of our next expansion in this blog post (that’s for next week), but you’ll have a better understanding of how we’re approaching its development.

Retrospective​

A quick history refresher. A little over a year and a half ago, we announced that we we’d be transitioning from the long-standing Living World model to smaller, more frequent (annual) expansion releases. This was a significant shift, but the new direction was born out of an examination of the pain points experienced by our players and our developers. The reasons we laid out for this change, and what we hoped to achieve by it, were simple but deeply important:

• Deliver content updates in a more consistent and timely manner.
• Provide better support for the systems and game modes that make up the Guild Wars 2 experience.
• Enable ArenaNet employees to enjoy a better work-life balance.

Now that we’ve completed a full expansion release cycle, I can confidently say that we’ve made significant strides toward these goals. But as with all things, there’s room for improvement—both in terms of the content we deliver and the processes through which we deliver it. For today, I’m going to focus on some of what we’ve learned on the content side of things.

Alright, some basic stuff.

Story​

The conclusion of the Elder Dragon saga in Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons® presented us with a unique opportunity to delve into a different kind of storytelling. We aimed to focus on deeper narratives grounded in the characters and circumstances around the player character. However, with SotO our ambition led us to take on a broader scope than was feasible. We introduced a lot of new characters, and the plot was too complex for what can be reasonably handled within an annual expansion. This left some character interactions feeling rushed and story threads unexplored. More isn’t always better.

There is no omegalul large enough to respond to someone claiming that the SotO plot was too difficult to understand. It wasn't complex, it was just not a very good story. Characters weren't rushed, they were just not particularly interesting. The most interesting cast members were Mabon (who wasn't given much to do) and Isgarren (who could have been far more interesting but wasn't).

We learned a lot from this experience and have a much greater understanding of story scale within our new release structure. For our next expansion, we’re going to tell a more grounded story set in a new region of Tyria, with more of a focus on local threats and the global conversation around those threats. Tyria, despite all its challenges, has continued to stir. While we leave Nayos and the Kryptis to enjoy their newfound freedom, the story will pick up on some threads started in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure—continuing with the Astral Ward arc, their moral ambiguity, and their relationship to Tyria.

A more grounded threat can certainly work, but I'm not sure how they're planning to salvage the Astral War aside from maybe that a few of their Fractals escaped, they violently put them down, and they're trying to cover this up.

Map Design​

In SotO, we delivered three new open-world maps. The first two, Amnytas and Skywatch Archipelago, came with the expansion’s launch in August 2023. The third map, Inner Nayos, was released with the first quarterly update in November 2023 and was then expanded on in our second and third quarterly updates with new playable space and event content.

After extensive adventuring in Inner Nayos in recent months, it’s clear that using a single map as the main focal point for three releases is not ideal from a player or developer standpoint. Our decision to do so originally stemmed from production constraints and overlapping development timelines between expansions, but we’ve since identified some ways to mitigate those issues—both in terms of release structure and process improvements.

For our next expansion, our first two maps will be released at the expansion’s launch just as they did in SotO. However, the final map will arrive in the second quarterly update and be expanded upon in the third—meaning it will be expanded on for two total releases like Bjora Marches and Drizzlewood Coast. Not only does this give our team a bit more time to develop the third map, it also means that the story during the next expansion cycle will better leverage all three maps and take you back to familiar areas from your past adventures. While the first quarterly release after the expansion’s launch won’t include the third open-world map of the expansion, as it did with SotO, there will be plenty of new content to keep you busy in that timeframe—in terms of story, open world content, and encounters. I know that’s a little vague (again, check back in next week), but rest assured, that first quarterly release will include something really exciting that players have been requesting for over 5 years.

Yep, three maps again. Except the first map won't even show in the November patch, you'll have to wait until February.

...

WHAT THE FUCK ARENANET.

Features​

MMOs are made up of numerous gameplay systems and content types, each with a different role to play in the game experience. As games go on, they tend to accumulate more and more systems and features from expansions and the like, which…is fine…if there’s effort put into maintaining and updating those systems. Looking back over the game’s history, I think this maintenance and upkeep is one of the areas where we’ve fallen short, at times even falling into the trap of releasing new features for the sake of releasing new features even if they overlap with something that already exists. This is something we’ve been referring to internally as “putting a hat on a hat.”

Over the last two years, we’ve put much more of a focus on upkeep and iteration of systems and avoiding unnecessary bloat where possible. We put more of a focus on maintaining live game systems, and with SotO we even went to the extent of entirely reworking existing features to make room for more modernized solutions. The Wizard’s Vault is a good example of this strategy working out well for us, and you can expect to see a new system being introduced in expansion 5 that adds a meaningful new way to spend your time in Guild Wars 2 while using this as an opportunity to greatly improve the player experience with related, existing game systems.

Overall, we were a bit conservative with features in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure—trying to strike the right balance between scope, schedule, and risk while navigating a new content structure. We’ve ironed out a lot of the kinks here, and it’s allowed us to be a bit more ambitious with our next expansion. Next week can’t come soon enough!

Yep, more daily stuff for you to do.

Such a Tease​

We closed out one of our recent blogs—which introduced the Cosmetic Inspection feature and recapped some of the quality-of-life changes that have gone into the game thanks to the development approach we took to Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure—with a screenshot preview of an area you’ll discover in our next expansion. We thought today would be a fun opportunity to build on that, so I’ll leave you with an additional environment preview.

On behalf of ArenaNet, I want to express my sincere gratitude for your continued support, your passion, and your feedback! It’s not lost on us just how incredibly lucky we are to have such a dedicated community behind us, and we look forward to discovering more of Tyria’s secrets together with you for years to come.

Thanks for reading! I can’t believe that we’re just a week away from announcing what’s next for Guild Wars 2. I’m really excited about what we’ve created, and I think you will be, too.


—Josh Davis, Game Director

And a timeline, spoilered for size:

Spoiler

Honestly, I'm reserving my final verdict for next week's trailer for the new expansion.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

A little over a year and a half ago, we announced that we we’d be transitioning from the long-standing Living World model to smaller, more frequent (annual) expansion releases. This was a significant shift, but the new direction was born out of an examination of the pain points experienced by our players and our developers. The reasons we laid out for this change, and what we hoped to achieve by it, were simple but deeply important:

Deliver content updates in a more consistent and timely manner.

2016 through 2019: GW2 is releasing at least one new full map every 2 to 3 months, from the start of Living World season 3 and then the release of Path of Fire up through the end of season 4.

Current GW2: releases three maps over one year.

That's not a "more consistent and timely manner", that is half the output.

 

[Caim]

A little over a year and a half ago, we announced that we we’d be transitioning from the long-standing Living World model to smaller, more frequent (annual) expansion releases. This was a significant shift, but the new direction was born out of an examination of the pain points experienced by our players and our developers. The reasons we laid out for this change, and what we hoped to achieve by it, were simple but deeply important:

Deliver content updates in a more consistent and timely manner.

2016 through 2019: GW2 is releasing at least one new full map every 2 to 3 months, from the start of Living World season 3 and then the release of Path of Fire up through the end of season 4.

Current GW2: releases three maps over one year.

That's not a "more consistent and timely manner", that is half the output.

It's not half the output, but it's still less than before. IBS has three maps in ten months' time, and EoD had five in fifteen. That's an average of one full map per three months, but then again EoD was topheavy and Gyala Delve was released much later. And that's not adding the post-release content drought.

 

[Caim]

So after getting the new Mastery I discovered that it comes with a very useful new NPC over at the Wizard's Tower:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gharr_Leadclaw

Guy's a converter on crack. Initially he looks like the converter you get from beating the Mouth of Mordremoth with the exact same drop tables except he takes the SotO currencies, complete with changing one currency for the other. On top of that he's got a fourth table that has the same table (minus the map currencies), except it takes the six nigh useless crafting materials you get from Hot and PoF which only barely sell on the TP. Pretty useful, even though you can take only one of these per day. But then you notice the absurd amount of store pages he has, giving you access to the following non-dailies:

- A slightly better version of the Gleam of Sentience, allowing you to trade in more types of surplus untradable crafting materials for containers with junk and mid-level crafting materials (they are on a weekly limit of 42, and you get a title if you open 250 of them)
- The super rare uniques from the various meta events. These cost absurd prices (the helm from the Amnytas event goes for 20k map currency or 100 of the item made from said currency!), but it could work if you are on a long dry spell and just want to get the thing already
- You can swap the map completion gifts for map currency or vice versa. Going to the item costs 5k currency of 25 items, and going from the item to the currency gives you 200. The former is a spectacularly shitty trade when you look at how long it takes to get that much currency, but going from the gift to the currency might be worth it if you can do the map completion quickly
- Exchange Kryptis Essences for a large variety of map rewards from the previous expansions and Living World episodes. This includes the Geodes and Crests from Season 2, all types of Writs, Tyrian Defense Seals and the HoT ones. Note that you get the same amount of each for 100 of any type of Essence. Yes, this means that the rare Triumph Essences give the same reward as the bag-clogging Despair ones. You can also turn them into the Amalgamated versions to fast-track expensive weapon skins, and if you feel like wasting your Essences you can get two Guild Banners for the price of one Amalgamated Essence
- Turn in any of the map meta reward chests from the previous expansions in bulk so you don't need to keep clicking them, as well as turning HoT untradable crafting items into currency and turning IBS ones into trade contracts. The cost is that you lose out on the rare unidentified gear, so that part is kind of useless compared to...
- Turn any SotO map meta reward chest into a reward from another chest. So if you've been doing a lot of Nayos metas but don't need its map currencies? Turn them into the Amnytas currency for better gains. You can also use this to get the weapon skins you want, bu tthose might not entirely be worth it

There's some pretty good stuff in here, but you can also buy a portable converter to do all of this on the move. Note that the list of items that show up in the converter are NOT the same items as the NPC but they do share the daily limit, so consider what you want before you commit. I especially like the various options to get extra currency, and some of the items look like neat long-term goals even if the ultimate weapon of this expansion looks kinda ass.

 

[Caim]

Yep, it's called Janthir Wilds.

Things of note, watch video first

- White Mantle might be in the area (bloodstone elementals sighted), possible start of the expansion's story
- And yes, Countess Anise is back as well
- Architecture inspired by the Wizard's Tower
- GRIZZLY KODAN
- Spear moves don't match aquatic moves
- Everybody gets spears, new legendary spear post release, skins from aquatic spears carry over
- New raid in patch 1, challenge mode and legendary challenge mode in patch 2, new fractal in patch 3
- MOTHERFUCKING WARCLAWS IN PVE
- Convergences carry over in some way
- Possible snake-themed enemies and/or bosses
- PLAYER
- OWNED
- HOUSING

From the website:

https://buy.guildwars2.com/en-us/janthir-wilds

Into the Wilds​

Head north to the wilderness of Janthir in the latest Guild Wars 2® expansion! Recent momentous events have left the denizens of Tyria determined to recover and build a new future together. Knowing that cooperation with neighbors will be crucial to their long-term success, your allies dispatch you to befriend the lowland kodan of Janthir—a dangerous land that was once home to the strange mursaat and their White Mantle sycophants in the time of the original Guild Wars 2®.

The story you uncover on the Isle of Janthir will play out across four major releases, starting with the initial launch of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds™ on August 20, 2024, and continuing to introduce content in quarterly releases through the first half of 2025. Each quarter of content also includes feature updates, new challenging group content, combat system updates, and more.

Home Sweet Homestead​

Your journeys will lead you to your own homestead, an account-wide personal housing instance for you to develop as you complete its associated Mastery. Homesteads present you with an area of land and a permanent structure to cultivate, decorate, and share with your friends; you can also access nodes and unlocks you've acquired for your personal story home instance in your homestead. Before we launch on August 20, we'll be back to share loads more information and a look at Homesteads decorating.

Spears: New Weapon for All Professions​

Learn the secrets of the spear from the lowland kodan! Spears, which were previously only used in underwater combat, will now have all-new skills for each profession on land. Some professions wield spears as formidable melee weapons, while others hurl them at range with devastating accuracy. Spears can be used interchangeably in the aquatic and terrestrial weapon slots, but you will need to equip multiple spears to use them in both locations. One of the post-launch releases will also introduce a new legendary spear to acquire. Any unlocked spear skins in your wardrobe will work for spears equipped on land.

Raids and Encounters​

Additional challenging encounters will become available alongside new story chapters in the three major releases that follow Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds In the first of these releases, around November 2024, you'll get to challenge a new raid comprising three encounters. The story of these encounters will be accessible in two ways: through a classic 10-player raid instance (our eighth raid), or with large groups in open-world events. The Convergences system will also be extended to the region of Janthir, including Janthir-specific enemies. The following major release, coming in the first quarter of 2025, will introduce a challenge mode and legendary challenge mode for the raid. And in our final major release for Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, we'll add a new fractal and its accompanying challenge mode.

Wild Warclaws​

Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds features the warclaw mount with new mechanics. Previously only available through World vs. World, the warclaw will be introduced to players in the story of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, including new skills for PvE play. At the same time, we'll be revisiting the warclaw's WvW skills to provide a refreshed experience that builds on what we've learned about mounts since first implementing the warclaw.

Rewards​

The launch of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds and each of its major releases will include a Wizard's Vault seasonal refresh that introduces new objectives and rewards. At launch, players will be able to work toward two new armor and weapon sets as well as several other cosmetic rewards. More cosmetics will be available in the following major releases, including a legendary spear and legendary backpack.

Same $25 cost for the base game as before

 

[rubinstein]

noooo they DEI-ed the kodans ...

so new raid it is. possibly it will serve as a conclusion to the eye of janthir, mursaat, etc. story arc from the earliest days of gw franchise.
*sigh* ok, i guess i'm in.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Neat new ability for Ranger. Is that exclusively a Ranger spear weaponskill? Or can I use that as a hammer wielding Untamed?

EDIT: Upon reading the news post, it seems it looks like Warclaws are getting a new Janthir skin, which the Ranger is using in his leap in the video. Does that leap reflect whatever your current Warclaw skin is? Or it going to always be the fluffy Janthir warclaw skin? Would be nice if I could change it to something more intimidating.

I am not super excited for the setting, which seems to be mundane rather than fantastical, but platforming across rugged waterfalls might be fun. Shame that this map will be coming out after everyone has easy access to mounts that trivalize navigating the environment.

Warclaws being revamped for PvE mounted combat? Maybe Anet will get around to making a large Warclaw skin appropriate for a big Charr character? Whenever I ride a Warclaw (or any mount besides the Dreadnaught Raptor skin or the Turtle), I feel like I am on a small pony.

New PvP mode sounds interesting. Would also be nice to get a new WvW map too.

 

[Caim]

Pretty sure that's a new spear attack, given that the Ranger is using a spear and not mounted when using it.

And I'm not a big fan of you having to choose between having your spear be a melee weapon or an aquatic weapon, meaning that if you want to use a spear both on land and in the water without having to manually switch you'll need two spears. Sure my preferred method might not be technically possible (having a spear in a normal melee slot costs you one of your aquatic slots but gives lets you switch between it and your second weapon both on land and in the water) and you already had to do stuff like this with one-handed weapons, but it's new for two-handed weapons.

I've also noted that on the actual website and not the store the descriptions are slightly different:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-guild-wars-2-janthir-wilds/

A fresh adventure is on the horizon! Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ arrives on August 20, bringing with it another year of story chapters and content updates. Bristling with mursaat ruins and harrowing to navigate, the fabled Isles of Janthir have been carefully guarded by the wizards of the Astral Ward—and to most of Tyria’s denizens, they are a distant legend. But recent events have inspired the world’s leaders to create a Tyrian Alliance and dispatch the wayfinder to befriend new allies. As you seek out the lowland kodan colony in Janthir, you will explore, fight, and learn more about the mysteries of Tyria’s past.

We’ve got a little bit of information to provide about some key features of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds in this blog, and between now and launch, you can stay tuned for even more details.

Beginning August 20, 2024​

Prepurchasing any edition of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds before the expansion launches at approximately 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) on August 20, 2024, will grant you the “Homesteader” title, the Whispering Serpents Pauldrons skin, and a box with your choice of one Serpent’s Wrath weapon skin.

Visit the official store page for full details on the items included in the Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate editions. You can purchase Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds through the official store or from the in-game store, Steam, or official retailers.

A New Adventure Beckons​

At the launch of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, you’ll explore two new maps as you seek an alliance with the lowland kodan who call the Isle of Janthir home, master new ways to fight and explore, and unlock a homestead (an account-wide personal housing instance) of your own. Over the course of three quarterly releases that follow the initial launch, you’ll have the opportunity to challenge new content, explore additional story in a third new map, craft a legendary spear and backpack, and obtain new Wizard’s Vault rewards, cosmetic items, relic effects, and more.

Homesteads​

We’re excited to add our take on account-wide housing with Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. Your journeys will lead you to your own homestead, an account-wide personal instance with a structure and land for you to decorate and cultivate. The Homesteads feature is unlocked and developed through an associated Mastery line as a place to express yourself, share space with your friends, and access nodes and unlockable resources from your personal story home instance. Before we launch on August 20, we’ll be back to share loads more information and a look at homestead decorating.

Wielding Spears on Land​

Previously only available for underwater combat, spears will now have all-new skills for each profession on land. Spears can be used interchangeably in the aquatic and terrestrial weapon slots, but you will need to equip multiple spears to use them in both slots. The unlocked spear skins in your wardrobe will work with both versions, and if you’ve made Kamohoali’i Kotaki, the legendary spear, you can equip it through the legendary armory in either slot!

Raids and Encounters​

Additional challenging encounters will become available alongside new story chapters in the three major releases that follow Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. In the first of these releases, anticipated to release around November 2024, you’ll get to challenge a new raid comprising three encounters. The story of these encounters will be accessible in two ways: through a classic 10-player raid instance (our eighth raid), or with large groups in open-world events.

The Warclaw​

In Janthir Wilds, the warclaw mount will be featured with new mechanics. Previously only available through World vs. World, the warclaw will be introduced to players in the story of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, including new skills for PvE play. At the same time, we’ll be revisiting the warclaw’s WvW skills to provide a refreshed experience that builds on what we’ve learned about mounts since first implementing the warclaw.

Developing a New PvP Mode​

And we’ve got one final thing to share for now: Over the course of the coming year, we’ll also be seeking input from the community on a new PvP game mode we aim to implement. We have a prototype of a map and mechanics that we’ll be ready to start beta testing later this year, and we’ll iterate on and refine that, taking into account your feedback on the beta tests.

Guild Wars 2 Is Coming to the Epic Games Store​

Guild Wars 2 and all of its expansions will be coming to the Epic Games Store! We’re always excited for a new opportunity to introduce Guild Wars 2 to new players, and we’re looking forward to welcoming in players with Epic Games accounts later this summer.

Stay Tuned​

Again, you can visit the official store or hop into the game to purchase the upcoming expansion, Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. Between now and launch on August 20, we’ll be sharing additional information about the features and content like the new spear skills, Homesteads, raids, and more.

There's a few new details here:

- Homesteads are account-wide and have their own associated Mastery
- Raid stories can be accessed through open world raids
- New PvP mode in the works, complete with a map
- New legendary backpack, which you'll likely get through either solo play or raiding

 

[Rahdulan]

I guess Home Districts are going to bite the bullet for real.

 

[Caim]

I guess Home Districts are going to bite the bullet for real.

Can't say I dislike that, mainly because the home districts are kinda ass. No your Norn doesn't get a house, you get a loft where there's dozen of randos and shitty merchants standing around. Also have fun running several distinct floors you can only access by a stairwell on the far side of the floor.

At least the Sylvari get to move out of their mom's basement.

 

[Rahdulan]

I guess Home Districts are going to bite the bullet for real.

Can't say I dislike that, mainly because the home districts are kinda ass. No your Norn doesn't get a house, you get a loft where there's dozen of randos and shitty merchants standing around. Also have fun running several distinct floors you can only access by a stairwell on the far side of the floor.

At least the Sylvari get to move out of their mom's basement.

It especially frustrates me because GW2 had housing from day one and just like with dungeons they just let the system become obsolete. Putting some gathering nodes in there isn't enough. Like you said the drastic differences in what races received was puzzling, though. Humans really do get an entire district in Divinity's Reach and I imagine that's where the idea came from to begin with. I guess I'll wait and see how Homesteads turn out, but associating them with Mastery already means they're more committed to the idea. Making it account-wide makes me doubt how customizable it's going to be, though.

 

[Caim]

I guess Home Districts are going to bite the bullet for real.

Can't say I dislike that, mainly because the home districts are kinda ass. No your Norn doesn't get a house, you get a loft where there's dozen of randos and shitty merchants standing around. Also have fun running several distinct floors you can only access by a stairwell on the far side of the floor.

At least the Sylvari get to move out of their mom's basement.

It especially frustrates me because GW2 had housing from day one and just like with dungeons they just let the system become obsolete. Putting some gathering nodes in there isn't enough. Like you said the drastic differences in what races received was puzzling, though. Humans really do get an entire district in Divinity's Reach and I imagine that's where the idea came from to begin with. I guess I'll wait and see how Homesteads turn out, but associating them with Mastery already means they're more committed to the idea. Making it account-wide makes me doubt how customizable it's going to be, though.

Homesteads just became even spicier.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/top...ds-launches-august-20/page/4/#comment-2126756

• Your current home instances are not going away when Homesteads arrive on August 20.
• Homesteads will have a separate crafting profession from Guild Scribing.
• We are not planning to add new strike missions in addition to the raid with Janthir Wilds.

Yes, a new crafting profession just for Homesteads. Better stock up on lumber.

And those weird wood looking monsters with the golden glow in the center? Yep, those are Titans, back from GW1. They were the ones who corrupted the Flame Legion prior to the first game, and gave them the power to unleash the Searing. Their defeat, and those of the Shamans, were required to free the Charr from their yoke. It's also why the Charr from the trailer refers to a "false god", which is what the Charr now consider the Titans to be.

 

[Drakortha]

Just when I thought I was finished with GW2, they tease a new PvP mode and map. Fuck sakes.. where was the content a year ago when I was still playing? Are they just going to abandon it again like they did Stronghold?

 

[Caim]

More spear stuff:

Straight to the Point: A Primer on Spears in Janthir Wilds​

Ho, travelers! My name is Taylor Brooks, and I am a combat designer here at ArenaNet. I’ll be your guide to our new combat feature in Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™, the Kodan Spear Training Mastery. By training with the lowland kodan of Janthir, you’ll learn how to use your spear on land in new and exciting ways. Starting tomorrow and over the next few weeks, we’ll be detailing how each profession utilizes the terrestrial spear. For today, I thought it would be a good idea to cover some of the general spear information you’ll need to know.

Q: Will spears be one-handed or two-handed weapons on land?
A: Spears are two-handed weapons both on land and underwater.

Q: Will spears on land just use the same skills as when used underwater?
A: No! Every spear has an entirely new set of skills for each profession when used on land. They also have brand-new skill effects and animations that we are excited for everyone to see!

Q: If every profession is getting a spear, does that mean they will all feel the same?
A: Spears are a versatile weapon, and their gameplay will reflect that. Some professions will employ the spear as a ranged projectile weapon, some will wield it as a melee weapon, and others will utilize it as a magical focus to cast powerful spells.

Q: How can I unlock spear usage on land?
A: The ability to use terrestrial spears will be available when Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds launches. They will be locked behind the first Mastery in the Kodan Mastery line, which is discovered early in the story, or as a purchasable unlock in WvW. We want everyone to be able to use your spears early and throughout your journey in Janthir. As with all other combat features, Kodan Spear Training will be unlocked automatically in PvP for those who own Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds.

Q: Can I use my current underwater spear on land?
A: Yes, spears can be used interchangeably in the aquatic and terrestrial weapon slots. But it is important to note that to equip a spear in both slots, you will need two spears.

Q: Which spear skins can I use on land?
A: All current spear skins will be able to be used on land. We also plan on adding spear skins with all future weapon skin collections.

Q: Will there be a new legendary spear?
A: There will be a new legendary spear released with our first major update following the expansion release. Additionally, the Legendary Armory will be expanded to store up to four Kamohoali’i Kotaki in case you want to wield all the spears, all the time!

Q: Since engineers and elementalists can use spears on land in the expansion, will they gain the ability to wield spears underwater too?
A: Professions that currently cannot use a spear underwater will continue to not be able to use a spear underwater.

Q: Do you need to own Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds to wield spears on land?
A: Yes, this combat feature requires ownership of the expansion.

Q: Will there be a beta test for spears?
A: Yes! There will be a beta event from June 27 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) until June 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) that will give everyone a chance to try out spears and give us feedback. We’ll be announcing more information about that beta event soon.

Q: Will there be a livestream?
A: There will be a stream featuring your favorite developer (me) along with Cal Cohen and Roy Marks. We’ll show off all the new spear skills and do a deep dive into what you can expect with them. Be sure to tune in to our Twitch channel on June 21 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7)!
We’ll be back tomorrow and in the coming weeks with more information about the new spears and their skills. We are very excited to give everyone a taste, and so I’ll leave you all with some teasers as to what you can expect to see!

• A spear skill reminiscent of an old fan favorite.
• A new type of autoattack mechanic.
• A set of spear skills featuring a new spin on an existing skill type.
• A set of spear skills with multiple ways to reset the cooldown of its key skill.
• A melee spear skill that rewards careful positioning.
• A set of spear skills that features a reimagining of a mechanic seen in the original Guild Wars.
• A spear skill that inflicts a debilitating effect with a new unique effect.
• A set of spear skills that require precise aiming at range.

Spears unlock after the first mastery on one of the new reward tracks, and they have wildly different abilities to avoid having 70 different flavors of "I stab you".

 

[Caim]

Preview for the Guardian, Necromancer and Ranger:



And a blogpost:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/spearheading-a-new-weapon-guardian-ranger-and-necromancer/

In case you missed the news, we’ve announced that our fifth expansion, Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™, arrives on August 20, and with it comes a brand-new way to fight with spears…on land. As promised in yesterday’s spear primer blog, we’re back and ready to dive into the details of how the guardian, ranger, and necromancer will utilize the terrestrial version of spears.

Game designers from the Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds combat feature team, Chun-Hong Fung, Taylor Brooks, and Cal Cohen, are here today to discuss the guardian, ranger, and necromancer respectively. So, without further ado, let’s get into it.

Guardian Spears Are Quite Illuminating​

Unlike the kodan that settled in the Shiverpeaks, the kodan of Janthir have long separated from their reverence for Koda. Instead, they’ve turned to the nature they’re surrounded by to guide their relationship with the world—the sun and all the benefits life seizes from it included. Certain spear bears look to the sun to channel inspiration in battle, aiding their allies and illuminating a path forward. Guardians have learned from these kodan and wield their spears in a similar manner, focusing on supporting allies and debilitating enemies.

While some of these skills can be used to provide support at a safe distance, their true potential is realized on the front lines when the guardian is fighting alongside their allies. By fulfilling specific conditions, certain spear skills will cause the following spear attack to be illuminated, which makes them stronger or grants them additional effects.

While you can only empower one skill at any given time, those skills can in turn grant the illuminated status to your next skill, allowing the guardian to chain multiple illuminated skills together with precise positioning. Let’s look at how a few of these skills work.

The second skill, Helio Rush, causes the guardian to charge forward in the direction they’re aiming, dealing damage to enemies and healing allies that they pass through. Striking an enemy during the rush causes the next spear attack to be illuminated. The illuminated version of Helio Rush increases the healing and additionally grants them resolution. Thus, this skill is best used in the thick of the fray, when you’re able to go through both allies and enemies at once.

Guardian weapons aren’t complete without a symbol of some sort, and the spear is no exception. The fifth skill, Symbol of Luminance, knocks enemies back as you cast it. The symbol pulses resistance to allies who don’t have it already and weakness to enemies. Symbol of Luminance is unique in that, unlike other spear skills, it does not have a way to grant the illuminated effect—but for good reason! While standing within the symbol, any spear attacks you perform are automatically illuminated, regardless of whether you are currently in the correct state. With the illuminated version of this skill, this property applies even if you leave the symbol and lasts for as long as the symbol does, including the additional duration granted by Writ of Persistence, an existing guardian trait.

Go Stealth with Ranger Spears​

Spear-wielding rangers excel at hunting their prey. They whittle their quarry down at range and then they finish them off with a surprise attack at melee range. Ranger’s spear features a new type of autoattack that some of the other spears will utilize as well. When at range, you’ll throw a spear at your target, but when you move closer to your foe, you’ll transition into using a melee chain! This bimodal model will help you always keep up pressure.

Rangers learn from the animals of Janthir to deftly wield their spear. Using Mongoose’s Frenzy, they’ll slash their spear in front of them as if they were a wild animal using their claws. Falcon’s Stoop throws a spear with the velocity of a raptor. Panther’s Prowl will kick up nearby brush, stealthing the ranger and their pet—and that’s when the fun begins.

Ranger spear features a new type of stealth attack. Unlike a thief, stealthing upgrades ranger spear’s 2 through 5 skills into new versions that share a cooldown with their base skill. Mongoose’s Frenzy flips into Wolf’s Onslaught; you swipe your spear as before and then follow up with a jab with the same force as a bite from a wolf’s gnashing fangs. Falcon’s Stoop becomes Owl’s Flight, launching an owl spirit that is wider and unblockable to fly through enemies.

Weaving in and out of melee range, rangers will use their spear to chip away at their prey before they go into stealth to finish the kill. Their unique stealth attacks will allow them to decide how they want to tactically approach any scenario.

Get Up Close with the Necromancer Spear​

Now let’s take a look at some aspects of the necromancer spear. This spear is a melee power damage weapon that also brings some disruptive elements, a bit of mobility, and some strong burst potential through cooldown resets.

Many of the spear skills create soul shards, life-stealing objects that behave similarly to thief’s venoms, but they will only be consumed by strikes from the spear’s second skill. This allows them to be consistently built up to a maximum of six to reach a singular moment of power, instead of being immediately consumed by the next strike. These shards deal increased damage against low-health enemies and grant increased healing while your health is low, giving more opportunities for powerful execution sequences or the ability to sustain when nearing death yourself.

As mentioned above, soul shards will be consumed by Perforate, skill 2 on the spear. Perforate is a multihit attack that strikes enemies seven times, enough to consume all active soul shards. Perforate also deals increased damage against low-health enemies, which, combined with the low-health bonus damage of soul shards, makes it a potent skill for finishing the job.

In order to get full value out of Perforate, you’ll need to generate some soul shards first, so let’s look at another skill that might come in handy.

Skill 4 is Isolate, the singular long-ranged skill on the spear that serves as a gap closer. This skill throws a spear at the enemy, inflicting chill and vulnerability, and on successfully striking a target it flips into the follow-up skill, Distress. Activating the follow-up skill will teleport the necromancer to the target struck by the initial spear and generate soul shards. Additional shards are generated if the enemy does not have any nearby allies of their own, so this skill is great at creating opportunities to pick off lone enemy targets. Teleporting to an enemy will also fully recharge Perforate, so you’ll always be ready to consume your newly generated soul shards. Isolate will also recharge itself when exiting Death Shroud, giving access to a lot of potentially powerful sequences. Skills 3 and 5 also generate soul shards (among other things), but we’ll talk about those a bit more at a later date.

What’s Next?​

Speaking of later dates, we’ll be showing off all of the new spear skills during a Twitch livestream on June 21 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7). In addition, there will be a beta event from June 27 at 9:00 a.m. until June 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) so everyone can try out spears and give us feedback!

Thanks for reading, and we’ll be back next week with more information on three more professions and their spear skills.

- Guardians can supercharge their spears and their Symbol superchages all attacks used within
- Ranger's Spear 1 is either a ranged or a melee attack based on distance from target, and has a stealth skill that gives you Thief-like sneak attacks
- Necromancers build up stacks that are consumed by Spear 2 in order to do a lot of damage

Pretty neat.

 

[Drakortha]

new animations is good to see.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Ranger spear animations automatically transitioning from being thrown at range to swung in melee is cool. Wish ranger axes had that capability.

 

[Vyvian]

Have they quietly cancelled the possibility of new classes or elite specs?

 

[Caim]

Have they quietly cancelled the possibility of new classes or elite specs?

No, but remember that there were four and a half years between Path of Fire and End of Dragons, which came with the second and third elite specs. By that metric the next full expansion will be out by 2026, about the time the expansion after Janthir has run its course.

After Janthir there's going to be another expansion with a similar structure to it and SotO, with nothing confirmed after that. But with Guild Wars 3 being in the wings (but being unlikely to have its release any time soon) I don't know if they'll be going back to that format any time soon.

Then there's the consideration of weapon options. This is the most pressing for Warriors, who only have five weapons that they can't use. It's going to be a hassle to invent an entirely new weapon type (unlike land spear which is an adaptation of an existing weapon), and they need to style an entire class around it. Sure they COULD pull something like an elite spec without a new weapon, but the weapon's half the fun. And of course they can realize that they can make an offhand scepter for all classes (caster classes get more spells, Guardian gets more support, Revenant expands on its tether, Thief gets more Specter-like tools, Engineer's options are styled after an amplifier for your tool belt and Ranger gets to play fetch with their pet) to milk them for more options.

There's also the option where weapons will receive major reworks for the more basic sets, but people aren't going to like that a lot.

 

[Drakortha]

Then there's the consideration of weapon options. This is the most pressing for Warriors, who only have five weapons that they can't use. It's going to be a hassle to invent an entirely new weapon type

They'll just invent another elite spec for warrior that pulls a weapon out of their ass, like the bladesworn.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Problem with new classes in MMOs where you cannot change your class after character creation is that eventually all MMOs reach a peak where the number of new players coming in no longer exceeds the number of old players leaving the game. You have more vets who are already invested in their mains than new players who are still perusing all of the classes. Adding new classes is an extremely worthwhile investment before reaching the peak, less so when you have fewer new players joining as a new class that requires rerolling a new character isn't a selling point to people who are already invested in their main. That's probably why they focused on elite specializations, as it provides value to veteran player as their existing mains can try out the new elite spec.

 

[Drakortha]

I've been thinking about it. And as much as I wanted to, I don't think I can get behind GW2 this time and buy into this next expansion.

The last expansion, Secrets of the Obscure, was such a steaming pile of grinding shit. I still haven't finished it and I probably never will. It really soured me towards the game.

What's this next expansion going to be like? Are they going to give me a homestead but before I can decorate it with the shit I want they'll give me a long checklist of tasks and collections to complete, as well as timegate the fuck out of it?

No thanks. I'm not going to pay ANET for the privilege of doing the busy work they've cooked up for everyone this time. It's a shame to see them taking the game in this direction. GW2 on launch boasted that it didn't have quests and you could just explore the open world and experience everything organically as you came across it. So what the hell do you call these checklist achievements and collections? These systems that they've decided to put everything into undermines everything that made GW2 a fun game in the first place. But now you are expected to spend half the time looking at a Wiki page while playing just so you can get through the content. It is such a slog and it's the most anti-fun way of doing content.

The only thing that can redeem GW2 anymore is if the new sPvP stuff is good. Otherwise there's no reason to ever return to this game. PVE is a grindfest and WvW is a wankfest filled with egotistical morons. sPvP is all that matters to me anymore but they've neglected it for years. If they can't save it, there's no point.